How the Japanese portrayed it.
Aftermath of Japanese Submarine I-17 shelling the Ellwood Oil Fields near Santa Barbara California USA on the night of February 23, 1942 -
LIFE Magazine Archives - Eliot Elisofon Photographer
Operation Grenade was a very dangerous assault crossing. Most US divisions had a difficult time getting their units over the fast-moving river Roer, and as the day progressed, many footbridges were swept away. The river crossing was the worst part of the first week of operation Grenade; once the US army was established on the east bank of the Roer, the operation went smoothly. The Germans, 59th Division and 363rd Volksgrenadier Division, which met the main weight of the American attack, were pushed back quickly. After twenty-four hours, 9th Army had twenty-eight battalions across the river and seven bridges in operation. The cost was 93 men killed, 913 wounded, and 61 missing. Many of these casualties were combat engineers involved in the river assault and bridge building. The terrain in front of 9th US Army was ideal for a mobile army. The relavely flat farm country was planted mostly in sugar beets and grain, and the road network was extensive. Apart from a number of fortified towns, there were few obstacles in the Americans’ path. By evening of the second day, tank and tank destroyer battalions were across and General Bill Simpson’s was beginning to sense that ‘ things were breaking up.’ There was ‘ not much in front of Ninth Army,’ and it was time to go for the Rhine river.
Source: The Last Offensive by Charles B. MacDonald
Unemployed men line up in front of a Chicago soup kitchen, which was operated by Al Capone, during the Great Depression.
